Although I haven't had much success with my big oven due to poor temp control, I've realised that using the big oven is the only way to bake a 9 inch cake.
Kat Kwa's earl grey cotton cheesecake for 8 inch pan (video) - nothing spectacular aka the standard bain marie method with 5 eggs. She uses condensed milk which I don't have. She uses 3 bags of tea in 160ml hot water and steeps for 15 mins. She uses room temp water for the water bath and bakes 150 deg C for 90 mins. She uses a small oven where the cake sits in the centre but the top of the cake has at least 20cm clearance from the oven roof. The cake doesn't sit inside with the oven off. She unmoulds immediately and removes parchment after it comes out.
I am very brave in attempting to use my big oven again because I want a 9 inch cake using 6 eggs. I'm using MyKitchen 101 (video and written) standard cotton cheesecake adapted for earl grey. I'm also using Kat Kwa's cooking times of 90 to 95 min at 150 deg C instead of Kitchen101's 150 deg C for 40 mins then 140 deg C for 1 hr 20 mins and cooled in switch off oven for 40-50 mins with door ajar. My manual oven cannot change temps so fast.
Ingredients
250g cream cheese, room temp and cubed
50g butter
½ tsp salt
30g sugar (for yolks) and 120g sugar (for meringue)
3 bags of earl grey tea
150g milk (use 170g then extract out 150g milk tea)
70g plain flour + 20g cornstarch (aka 90g cake flour)
6 eggs, separated
2 tsp lemon juice
Method
1. Line a 9 inch baking pan with parchment. Prepare the tea: heat up the milk to 95 deg C and add the 3 tea bags. Steep the bags in the milk for 15 mins then extract out 150g of milk tea.
2. In a bain marie, combine cream cheese, salt, butter and first portion of the sugar and melt then blend until smooth. Remove from bain marie.
3. Sieve in flours and fold in. Set aside.
4. Add egg yolks one at a time and mix well each time.
5. In a very clean bowl, whisk up the egg whites at low speed. Once frothy, add the lemon juice.
6. Add the sugar in 3 batches and mix each time for 1 - 2 mins. Once all the sugar is in, turn up to high speed. Beat until nearly soft peaks then turn down and beat at least speed for 2 minutes to dispel the bubbles. Meringue is ready once shiny and peaks fold over.
7. Add first batch of meringue to batter and gently mix with hand whisk.
8. For the second and third batch of meringue, be more careful mixing in with the hand whisk so as not to knock out the air.
9. For the fourth and final batch of meringue, pour the batter back into the meringue and use a spatula to fold in, turning the bowl as you fold. Tap the bowl on the counter top to burst the big bubbles.
10. Pour batter into the lined baking tin and tap on the counter top to break big bubbles. Use a skewer to trace out zig zags to dispel smaller bubbles.
11. Place a cloth in a bigger baking tray and place the cake tin on top of the cloth. Pour in room temp water till 1 inch up the side of the tin. (cake cracks if using hot water).
12. Place the cake in the lower third (but not at the very bottom) of the oven and bake for 150 deg C for 90 mins. Turn off oven and remove water bath. Leave cake inside with door ajar for another 30 mins to minimise shrinkage.
13. Remove from oven and unmold completely. Allow to cool on a rack at least 6 cm above the counter top until completely cool. Best to refrigerate overnight before slicing.
Recipe feedback
- A really short cake (2 inches tall) but at least no cracks! No waist! The brown isn't very golden but I think the cake is perfection as far as I'm concerned.
- When I peeled off the sides and bottom, the bottom was somewhat moist and soft so I had to be very careful not to tear a huge chunk out of the cake. However, with refrigeration, it should be firm up. At least the bottom is cooked!
- Based on the colour, in this big oven, 160 deg C for 85 minutes with 30 mins resting in the oven with door ajar would probably be ideal, except my big oven doesn't like keeping at 160 deg C for some reason and keeps going above or under.
- Compared to my black sesame cotton cheesecake previously, temp and timing were the same. The only real differences in method were:
1) I left the cake in the oven for further 30 minutes with door ajar instead of removing immediately and dropping it on the counter top. This prevented the waist.
2) My water bath similarly started from room temp water so no crack (which Kitchen 101 suggests happens when using hot water). Water also only came to 1cm (instead of 1 inch as per black sesame cheesecake) up the side. With both recipes, I didn't wrap the outside of the tin in foil so there wasn't an eggy centre. The water had most evaporated by the time I removed it from the oven!
3) My top also didn't rise as high this time and the colour wasn't as nice because the oven was bigger and the top of the cake wasn't as close to the heating element. Updated: I've realised that I swapped the order of the flour and egg yolk. Looks like they do make a difference as the flour needs to slightly cook in the heated milk + melted cream cheese mixture.
4) I totally removed all parchment, even that at the bottom to prevent any condensation and thus wetness at the bottom. That led to heart stopping moments when I was afraid the cake would tear or split when I was peeling away the parchment from the side and flipping it over to remove the bottom and again when removing the parchment from the bottom.
Cake next day after overnight in fridge. Slight sag at the side because parchment and pan were removed
Beautiful Earl Grey color
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